In Lima!

I'm here at the mtc in Peru! The weather is amazing and I'm running on like no sleep at all.

Just a couple things, they highly recommended not sending me packages because its ridiculously expensve to do so. And I can't quite figure out how to get the pictures on the email yet so maybe next week :(...I may go buy myself an SD card as well. And I have no more stamps! I can use US stamps so long as I use the pouch system, so send me some stamps so I can send you your letters! You'll have to send them via regular mail because you aren't allowed to send letters with an envelope in pouch mail.

Everyone can always send me a letter through Dearelder.com. My new mailing address is

Elder Patrik Connole
Peru Arequipa Mission
Av. Melgarejo 159
Urb. Campo Verde
La Molina, Lima, Peru

Lets see. So nothing super exciting happened most of the rest of the time I was at the Provo MTC, went to the temple, went to class, studied, just the usual MTC stuff.

On Tuesday Elder Light and I did our laundry during our free time and packed and cleaned...it was a little hectic because we still had to go to class after lunch and go to the TRC (basically where we go to teach members who are acting as investigators) and do the task there. And we had a devotional, Elder Hinckley (President Hinckley's son) spoke to us. It was really awesome and a good devotional to end on.

After the devotional when we all went to our rooms, all the elders in our zone sang "God be with you till we meet again" in spanish, at the top of our lungs. It was really fun! I'm gonna miss my zone, and district...

So yesterday, wow was it really only yesterday? Craziness. Anyways, I got up around 5:15ish finished up packing, got ready to go and hopped on a bus to SLC. When we got there at about 8:00 am they had changed our flight from 9:45 (because it had been delayed) to 8:30, so I hurried and called the travel offices because I was the travel group leader, and told them what was going on and all of us except for 1 elder got on the plane. The other elder missed it because he had a problem with his ticket, but don{t worry he's here, safe and sound. That flight took us to Atlanta and from there we finally had a chance to eat for the first time all day, and a 3 hour lay over. Oh and I called home then as well.

We then took a 6 1/2 hour flight to Lima. We arrived at 12 am Peru time and it took us about an hour and a half to get through security and everything, customs and gather luggage and what ever else. Its quite humid here, but its not terrible. And then it took about 45 min or so to get to the the CCM (MTC). So its like 3:00 in the morning by the time we get everything taken care of and go to sleep. We then had to get up at 6 am in preparation for the day. That really sucked!

Breakfast was weird pancakes and runny yogurt, it wasn't too bad, I've had worse. Then all morning we've had orientation and talking to the mission president's wife and exchanging our money. Lunch was really really really good, I really liked it.

My new companion, Elder Barandalla, is a latino like most of the elders here, there are only like 58 elders and 5 hermanas here, only about 15 elders or so are non-latino. He is from Argetina and knows very little english. Like 5 phrases or so. So that makes it really interesting. But he is a really nice guy and we'll help eachother learn.

The campus here is awesome! 2 full basketball courts, a full size turf soccer field, a sand volleyball court, foosball and pingpong. There are only 3 buildings, an admin building, cafeteria and the bedrooms/classrooms building, so it is waaaaaaaaay smaller than Provo. Overall the whole atmosphere is a lot more laid back and relaxed than Provo...we don't have to wear a suit coat a lot of the time and if we finish lunch early then we can play foosball or whatever until we have to go to class.

I believe I have more time to email than I used to on P-day (which is normally Wednesday) So we'll have to see. Like I said before, I have no more stamps so if you write me it may take a while to get back to you. I already wrote letters to some of you, but I cant get them to you...argh! Frustration!

Anyways in short, I'm here, and doing very well although I still can't believe I'm actually here!

Love you and miss you all!
Elder Patrik Connole